Articles
Training animals to cooperate for everyday tasks and care on farms and in experiments
Abstract
Animal training leads to the cooperation of animals for everyday routine husbandry and veterinary procedures during the rearing and experimental procedures. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of livestock training in the context of animal experimentation. In the first section, we explain why training animals is relevant for research purposes, with particular reference to the ‘3 Rs’. In the second section, we detail the principles of training: the underlying learning mechanisms, the techniques used by trainers, the definition and formalisation of training plans, and finally the indicators that can be used to monitor the emotions felt by the animals and their progress during training. Finally, a global analysis, adapted from work carried out on non-human primates, is proposed according to whether the training programmes are carried out at project, research unit or institute level.
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